Where do I start. I am a swimmer and have swam my share of open water races, but I have never had an experience even remotely close to what happened to me in the swim. I took off with the over 40 wave. I expected to lead or be with the leader. A hundred yards out I could tell I had pulled away, but at 200 yards I was stopped abruptly by a kayaker and his paddle. He pulled right in front of me and insisted that I was off course. He blocked my way and forced me in the direction of a different colored course marker (orange instead of white). I knew this was wrong. The orange marker was or the swim short Tri-It distance. Unfortunately, there was just no getting around this guy, so I turned left to the wrong marker. I ended up coming across other swimmers catching up so I joined the pack and swam on. No sooner than I had rounded the first buoy (the correct one) and passed the people ahead of me, I realized that the next kayaker was right in the middle of the line of sight to the next buoy. I started yelling at him to no avail. So I just swam on intent on swamping him if he got in the way. Lucky for him he did not. Many people complained they could simply not see the 2nd buoy.

I managed to pass everyone in the over 40 wave so no harm suffered, but I felt bad for any of those behind me that may have run into similar problems and did not have the open water experience. As it turns out 2 woman told me he had hit them with his paddle trying to get them to make the wrong turn. I spoke to the course director, who appeared politely concerned. Clearly not a competitor, it looked like this was a minor issue since no one drowned. I guess in that sense it was.

Knock the first kayaker out of his boat and ignore the second one.

When will I ever learn to be quicker in transition. It was only the second time I swam in a wetsuit, and did my worst getting my suit off. It all seems so simple in practice. I gave away at least 1 minute here.

Train at this venue, race the swim, run up the hill to the transition area, take off my wetsuit, and put shoes and socks on. I'm going to do this 3 times in a row. I hope this helps.

Train more on the bike. I love racing the bike and I go much faster with the proper training. I just got a late start on my training this year.

Brick training: bike to run.

Missed my aisle on returning with my bike. First time for that.

Run faster and stay focused on my location. I think I gave away as much 30 seconds here.

I almost didn't complete the race. At the top of the first hill (at approx. 2/3 mile post) I almost stopped. I am fighting a piriformis injury and was running on one leg. However once over the top I could relax that muscle and slowly increase my speed. I always run the second half much faster

I came up short on training. This was the primary reason I did the sprint. Get more running in.

Walked around a bit and drank lots of water. My legs were stiff but I was not tired.


Insufficient training due to early season injury. Unresolved piriformis injury. Getting more "mature" every day.


Choosing the sprint distance was the right right choice. It allowed me to have more fun racing and less time surviving. I was in a tough age group (really). The other two 55 year olds that beat me in my age group finished 13th and 49th overall respectively in this field of 249.